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She will face fourth seed Elena Rybakina for a
place in Sunday's final.
Sabalenka had won her last four matches with Vondrousova, and
after winning the opening set, the Australian Open champion
looked on course to progress.
Wimbledon champion Vondrousova led 4-1 in the second set before
Sabalenka pulled it back to 4-3 but the Czech sixth seed broke
for a third time and held serve to force the decider.
Sabalenka went 5-4 ahead in the final set before Vondrousova
reeled off three games in a row to reach the semi-finals where
she will meet either American third seed Coco Gauff or Marta
Kostyuk of Ukraine.
"It was a very tough match, and I think a great one, too,"
Vondrousova said.
"She's a great player so I just tried to stay in the rallies.
She hits very fast so it's tough to do something. But I stayed
calm in the crucial moments."
Sabalenka reached the quarter-finals after her good friend Paula
Badosa was forced to retire through injury on Wednesday, with
the match tied at one set each and 3-3 in the decider.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina also reached the semi-finals after
overcoming the challenge of in-form Jasmine Paolini 6-3 5-7 6-3.
Paolini won the Dubai Tennis Championships in February and rose
to a career-high 14th in the world rankings and reached the last
16 at Indian Wells in March.
After winning the opening set, Rybakina had let slip a 4-2 lead
in the second and came back from an early break by the Italian
in the final set.
"I'm happy with my energy," Rybakina said.
"Of course, I had chances in the second set where I could have
closed it out but overall, I think it's just a matter of matches
and feeling better and better on the court."
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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